Grooming a pet is necessary in order to maintain the pet's health. Many pets fear grooming devices such as a metal, wooden, or plastic brush. The brushes are hard and cold with large bristles, often placing the pet in discomfort during the grooming process. The pet squirms and attempts to escape during this frightening experience. Grooming devices lack the warm, soothing contact between the groomer and the pet's skin that is needed to keep the pet relaxed for grooming.
Grooming gloves have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 277,173 and 2,988,049. These devices, however, employ the use of hard, large bristles attached to the surface of the glove and are more adaptable for use on large animals, like horses. Power-driven grooming devices have been described in patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,753,583; 4,779,572; 3,145,691; 3,981,275; and 4,083,327. These devices are quite large, some with metal blades and bristles that create fear and discomfort within the animal upon which it is being used. Some of the grooming devices are connected to power-operated suction devices or hair dryers that can be noisy and painful when used upon the animal. Even manually-operated grooming and/or massaging devices can be frightening and painful to an animal as many of these devices also use hard, elongated blades and bristles as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,958,596 and 3,107,665.
Pets are similar to people in that they have a skeletal and muscular system that is subject to aches and pains, too. Unfortunately, the pet cannot explain where it hurts. As massage therapy is good for people's health by increasing blood flow to injured body areas, massage therapy and grooming can be similarly helpful for pets. However, a large, noisy, power-operated device placed directly on a pet's body would frighten most pets as they do not understand the nature of the device being placed upon them. The sight alone of such a device would likely create immediate tension within the pet.